To:INESSA ARMAND

Written:Written on February 19, 1917Published:First published in 1949 inBolshevikNo. 1.

      Sent from Zurich to Clarens (Switzerland).

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      pages288-289.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

DearFriend,

Theother day we had a gratifying letter from Moscow (we shall soon
send you a copy, although the text is uninteresting). They write that the
mood of the masses is a good one, that chauvinism is clearly declining and
that probably our day will come. The organisation, they say, is suffering
from the fact that the adults are at the front, while in the factories
there are young people and women. But the fighting spirit, they say, is not
any the less. They send us the copy of a leaflet (a good one) issued by the
Moscow Bureau of the Central
Committee.[1]We shall print it in the next issue of the Central Organ.

Richardis himself again! It’s difficult for people to live, and for
our Party in particular. But still they do live.

Thereis also a letter from Kollontai, who (let this beentre
nousfor the time being) has returned to Norway from
America. N. Iv. and Pavlov (the Lett who was in Brussels:
Pavel Vasilyevich) hadwon Novy Mir, she says (I get this
paper very irregularly), but ... Trotsky arrived, and this scoundrel at
once ganged up with theRightwing ofNovy Miragainst
the Left Zimmerwaldists!!  That’s it!! That’s Trotsky for you!! Always true
to himself=twists, swindles, poses as a Left,helpsthe Right, so
long as he can....

Amongthe Left in America, she says, things are not going badly, though
Kollontai is afraid of anarcho-syndicalist tendencies in the
S.L.P. (N. Iv., she says, is not afraid of this). I have read in the
S.L.P. organ (The Weekly People)[2]that they are throwing
overboard their minimum programme.... N. Iv. has been stumbling “at that
therespot” since 1915. I fear for him! But the post to America isnotworking.

Ihave been putting in a lot of study recently on the question of the
attitude of Marxism to thestate; I have collected a lot of
material and arrived, it seems to me, at very interesting and important
conclusions,much moreagainst Kautsky than against
N. Iv. Bukharin (who, how ever, is not right all the same, thoughnearerto the truth than Kautsky). I would terribly much like to
write about this: perhaps publish No. 4 ofSbornik
Sotsial-Demokratawith Bukharin’s article, and with my discussion of
his little mistakes and Kautsky’s big lying and vulgarisation of Marxism.

Nadyais ill: she has caught bronchitis and has a
   temperature. It looks as though she will be in bed for some time. I called
   in the doctor today.

Nadyais ill: she has caught bronchitis and has a
   temperature. It looks as though she will be in bed for some time. I called
   in the doctor today.

Wellsand what about your visit to La Chaux-de-Fonds? Have you given up
this idea altogether, and all your plans about work in French Switzerland?
You should not let that drop. Things here, as I wrote, are not very good,
yet today we have finishedleaflet
No.I[3](“the Swiss group of Zimmerwald Lefts”). We shall
see what happens!

Ifnot now, then in general (i.e., a little later) we shall succeed (I
am sure)—if not we, then our successors—in building up a Lefttrendin Switzerland. Thegroundfor this exists!

Haveyou read the propositions of the Left at the Congress of the
Zurich cantonal party at
Töss,[4]February 11, 1917? inVolksrecht?  Not bad all the
same, eh?

Allthe very best greetings and handshakes. Excuse the scribble on the last
page: I am being hurried.

Yours,Lenin

[1]TheMoscow Bureau’s leaflet which Lenin mentions was not published in
the Party’s central organ,Sotsial-Demokrat, because in January
1917, after the publication of No. 58, the paper closed down.

TheMoscow Bureau of the Central Committee was at the time the leading
body of the Moscow Regional Bolshevik Party organisation. Among the
Bureau’s members were Rozalia Zemlyachka, M. S. Olminsky and
I. I. Skvortsov-Stepanov.

[2]TheWeekly People—organ of the Socialist Labour Party of
America, founded in New York in 1891.

[3]Referenceis to Leaflet No. 4, “Gegen die Lüge der
Vaterlandsverteidigung” (“Against the Lie about Defence of the
Fatherland”), which was later published over the signature of the “Group
of Zimmerwald Lefts in Switzerland”. Lenin was closely concerned with the
writing and editing of this leaflet. It included the “Proposed Amendments
to the Resolution on the War Issue” and a number of other writings by
Lenin.

[4]TheCongress of the Zurich Social-Democratic organisation in Töss was
held on February 11 and 12, 1917. It discussed the Social-Democratic
attitude to militarism and war. Two draft resolutions were moved: =

(1) a resolution drafted by the Rights in a spirit of social-chauvinism and
=

(2) a Centrist draft approved by the majority of the leaders of the Swiss
Social-Democratic Party. =

The majority resolution was passed by 93 votes to 65. To prevent the
social-chauvinist resolution being adopted, the Lefts voted for the
majority resolution, but moved amendments drafted by Lenin (see present
edition, Vol. 23, p. 282). The Lefts’ motion containing these amendments
received 32 votes. The materials of the Congress were published in the
newspaperVolksrecht.